OD Practitioners as Facilitators of Change

A study was undertaken to determine the degree of knowledge and understanding that organization development (OD) practitioners have regarding key issues in the management of change in organizations. Other variables of interest included the preferred mode of influence or consulting style based on a transformational versus transactional framework and the degree of tolerance for ambiguous situations. Data were collected using two survey instruments, the Managing Change Questionnaire (MCQ) and the Change Agent Questionnaire (CAQ), which were mailed to 1,500 OD practitioners randomly selected from the membership rosters of three professional associations. Of the sample, 24% returned completed questionnaires. Responses were compared with previous findings from managers and executives and then analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and multiple regression techniques to identify differences among categories of practitioners. Overall, OD practitioners were found to be quite knowledgeable about the concepts covered in the MCQ, more likely to be transformational than transactional in their consulting approach, and relatively tolerant of ambiguous situations. Formal educational background and nonacademic training experiences were identified as contributing factors in these trends, as well.